What is a sister city relationship

International "Sister" Relationships Benefit U.S. Cities

Jun 14, As explained on the city's official website, these pairings exist to build strong international relationships. “Vancouver's sister city relationships. A sister or friendship city relationship is formally created when the mayors or of a long process that involves the local sister city organization along with the. May 8, The top officials of two cities in different countries may agree to establish a sister city relationship based on a particular connection or common.

Originating in the private sphere, the innovation ecosystem concept is gaining traction in the public sector, and government agencies are realizing that greater investment in human capital creates sustainable businesses. As rates of migration into cities increase in the developed and developing world alike, the trend could grow into a successful movement.

Sister city

The sister city concept was born out of post-WWII development aid programs in which education and cultural relations between cities in Western Europe were used to solidify the peace and reconciliation efforts. In this same spirit, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created Sister Cities Internationalthe national membership organization that facilitates sister city relationships between U.

These relationships over time have come to include trade and tourism between the partnered cities, but they can be the foundation for a greater economic engagement. With the Chicago-Mexico City trade agreement, the Windy City is taking advantage of a sister city framework that builds on existing cultural and economic ties. The Chicago metro area is home to the second-largest concentration of Mexican immigrants in the U. Both have a sordid history with the forces of globalization.

They are both victims of deindustrialization, but are also becoming the new home of global firms, including Siemens, a multinational German engineering giant, in Chicago, and Motorola Solutions in Mexico City. The story of sister cities in North America is similar to that of Europe.

After the War, a number of American communities decided to assist a European counterpart recovering from the war. The first mention of such a relationship is between Dunkirk, New York, and Dunkirk, France, which started in sharing a similar name seems to lead to affinity.

And just as Europeans worried about maintaining positive relationships between former adversaries, many Americans wanted to cultivate a positive relationship with Japan. The first American—Japanese sister relationship was established in between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Nagasaki, Japan.

West Covina Sister City Relationships | City of West Covina

This was just ten years after the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki. Paul and baseball games between the cities little league teams.

Paul has a yearly remembrance of the devastation caused by the bomb. The Japanese peace garden in St.

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Paul, Minnesota celebrates the sixty years of sisterhood between St. InPresident Dwight Eisenhower formalized and prioritized the development of sister city relationships by creating Sister Cities International. Sister Cities International is not an official part of the government, but since its founding, the sitting U. Today, Sister Cities International recognizes over 2, partnerships between over American communities with partners in countries there are many more partnerships not officially recognized.

Certain states in the U.

Why Do We Have “Sister Cities”?

CaliforniaFlorida and Texas But if we look at the number of sister city relationships per capita, we find a more interesting list. The two states with the most sister cities per person are Hawaii and Alaska, the two states not part of the contiguous U. Nine out of the top ten are coastal. It seems that coastal states have a more international outlook. In addition to looking at the states that have the most sister cities, we also checked the most common country partner for the sister cities in each state.

We found a geographic pattern to these relationships.

States on the West Coast are much more likely to pair up with Japanese towns, while states on the East Coast are more likely to look to Europe. Perhaps the most surprising appearance on the list is that between Estonia and Maryland. Estonia and Maryland actually have a friendship partnership that goes back to the early s. The states are ordered by those that have the most partnerships.